Figure 5.

Schematic of the main findings. The relative exposure to low WSS and oscillatory WSS appears to be associated with different facets of early atherosclerosis at the carotid artery. Low WSS is associated with increased contrast uptake at the carotid bulb, whereas oscillatory shear is (weakly) associated with increased bulb thickness. Low shear links and explains both mechanisms of increased CE (i.e. CE coming from luminal or adventitial side). Associations between low or oscillatory WSS with other haemodynamic and flow rate-related variables are also shown.